I’m having problems using the material from the previous version of Le Morte D’Arthur. It’s not well suited for the Encounter system; it consists of interesting little anecdotes, but none of them lend themselves to interesting decisions for Arthur to make. Here’s another example:
"One of your men is engaged in a ferocious single combat with a Saxon warrior. They're really going at it, and their neighbors on both sides are happy to let them carry on the fight. Everybody watches the combat in silence, huffing and puffing from the effort of fighting. Suddenly one of your men races forward from behind the line bearing a spear. He's heading directly for a Saxon who's watching the fight a little too intensely. The other Saxons start, but the intended victim doesn't see it coming. Just then the Britannic hero jumps backwards -- and directly into the path of the oncoming spearhead. It rips sideways into his back and bounces off, leaving a long rip. The unintended victim staggers; in an instant, his Saxon foe dispatches him.”
Sure, it’s an interesting little story—but so what? What can Arthur do about it? I can’t see any useful choices for him to make.
The purpose of the battle scene is for Arthur to demonstrate his skills in combat. He should be making decisions about whom to help, about how to manage his people, pushing some forward and pulling some back. He should have to make decisions about when it’s better to fall back than to push forward, about when discretion is the better part of valor. None of the anecdotes in my set provide those kinds of options.
Perhaps I can use these anecdotes as preambles to the real dilemma. That is, the encounter begins with one of these anecdotes, then segues from there to a serious battlefield problem for Arthur to solve. But what are the kinds of decisions that Arthur should be making?
One set of decisions would involve pressing forward versus holding position versus falling back. Some of the anecdotes have a successful feel to them; Arthur should press forward on those. Others present setbacks; Arthur should order those men to fall back.
We’ll also see the various battlegroups separating; Arthur must quickly catch those and fill the gaps. Arthur commands the katerfaks, who act as his reserve and can quickly intervene anywhere on the battlefield. Their best use, however, is the big charge that breaks the Saxon line and wins the day. Do it too soon, and you take heavy losses; too late, and too many Saxons get away.
I wrote most of those anecdotes on the assumption that Arthur’s forces consisted of infantry led by dukes on horseback. I must now alter it to reflect the fact that Arthur’s entire army is mounted. I’ll have to make substantial changes to reflect that. Also, I must minimize the role of archers, as they did not play an important role in these battles.
Arthur must also make good strategic decisions. His army is faster than the Saxon infantry, but they can amass forces too large for Arthur to tackle, so he must figure out how to outmaneuver them.